I have a simple RGB LED-strip that operates at 3-24V (the LEDs are not individually addressable). It's made out of 30 LEDs (5050 smd). I was at first planning to control it directly from an Arduino using 3 analog pins, but from what I read you should not draw more than 40mA from any pin. But the strip draws about 18.5mA per color of a single LED at 5V. So all 3 colors on all 30 LEDs lighting at the same time makes 18.5mA*3*30=1605mA.

So my next idea was to control 3 relays with the Arduino and these relays would sit directly between the power source and the LED strip. But relays are annoyingly loud and the ones I have are too big imo.

So I thought: maybe transistors..I have quite a lot of different transistors lying around, but I have no experience in using them at all. I know all the theory, but when it comes to the specsheets I'm completely lost.

I will power the whole thing with one or more LiPo batteries and potentially a boost converter.

My question is: can I replace the relays with any of the transistors I have at home? Transistors:

Circuit is ok, mosfet choice is wrong for the current you're talking about.Didn't look through all the mosfets in your list, but the IRLZ34N would be perfect.With bigger mosfets, it's wise to use a 220ohm resistor between Arduino pin and gate, to limit switching currents. And a 10k resistor from Arduino pin to ground, to have the gate firmly grounded during bootup.Try analogWrite to control the brightness of your LEDs (PWM pins only).Leo..